522 OLEAGINOUS PLANTS. 



the rainy season. The Palo de Velas belongs to the natural order 

 Crescent iacecB, and is a Pa>'inentiera, of "which genus hitherto only 

 o i species, the P. edulis, of i)e Can,lolle, was known to exist. The 

 fruit of the latter, called Quauhacilo/e, is eaten by the Mexicans, 

 while that of the former serves for food to numerous herds of 

 cattle. Bullocks especially, if fed with the fruit of this tree, 

 guinea-grass, and Batatilla {Ipomoea brachypoda, Benth.), soon 

 get fat. It is generally admitted, however, that the meat partakes 

 in soir.e degree of the peculiar apple-like smell of the fruit, but 

 this is by no means disagreeable, and easily prevented, if, for a 

 few days previous to killing the animal, the food is changed. 

 The tree produces its principal harvest during the dry season, 

 when all the herbaqpous vegetation is burned up, and on that 

 account its cultivation in tropical countries is especially to be 

 recommended; a few acres of it would effectually prevent that 

 want of fodder which is always most severely felt after the 

 periodical rains have ceased. (" Hooker's Journal of Botany.") 



CINNAMON SUET is extracted by boiling the fruit of the cinna- 

 mon. An oily fluid floats on the surface, which on cooling sub- 

 sides to the bottom of the vessel, and hardens into a substance 

 like mutton suet. The Singhalese make a kind of candles with it, 

 and use it for culinary purposes. It emits a very pleasant aroma 

 while burning. According to the analysis of I)r. Christison, it 

 contains eight per cent, of a fluid not unlike olive oil ; the re- 

 mainder is a waxy principle. 



CROTON OIL is obtained by expression from the seeds or nuts 

 of Croton Tirjlium, an evergreen tree, 15 to 20 feet in height, 

 belonging to the same order as the castor oil plant, producing 

 whitish green flowers, and seeds resembling a tick in appearance, 

 whence its generic name. It is a native of the East Indies. 100 

 parts of seeds afford about 64 of kernel. 50 quarters of croton 

 nuts for expressing oil were imported into Liverpool from the 

 Cape Verd Islands, in 1849. 



The Croton Tiylium grovvs plentifully in Ceylon, and the oil, if 

 properly expressed, might be made an article of trade. The best 

 mode of preparing it is by grinding the seeds, placing the powder 

 in bags, and pressing between plates of iron; allow the oil to 

 stand for fifteen days, then filter. The residue of the expression 

 is triturated with twice its weight of alcohol, and heated on the 

 sand-bath from 120 to 140 degs. Fahrenheit, and the mixture 

 pressed again. In this step the utmost caution is necessary in 

 avoiding the acrid fumes. One seer of seed furnishes by this 

 process rather more than eleven fluid ounces of oil, six by the 

 first step, and five by alcohol. 



The oil acts as an irritant purgative in the dose of one drop. 

 In large doses it is a dangerous poison. When applied externally 

 it produces pustules. 



In 1845, eight cases of croton oil and six cases of the seed were 

 exported from Ceylon. 



Other species of Croton, as C. Pavana, a native of Ava and the 



